England have stressed that the door remains open for Kevin Pietersen to return to international cricket, if only he will address the allegations that he was in text contact with members of the opposition during the second Test at Headingley. But is it really plausible, now that his isolation in the dressing room has been so starkly highlighted, that he could play for his adopted country again?

"I know for a fact there are players in this England side who cannot stand Kevin Pietersen," the former captain Nasser Hussain wrote in his newspaper column on Monday. There were no obvious signs of that when Pietersen was playing a key role on the last Ashes tour, although close observers of the squad have apparently been aware for years of the tension between the star batsman and several other senior players.

Anyone who has played team sport knows that should not be such a surprise and need not be a major problem. Shane Warne, a long-term friend and ally of Pietersen's, made that point when rushing to his defence on Twitter. "It's more important to be respected than liked in a team environment and for that matter in life," argued the great Australian leg-spinner, who was known to have an especially prickly relationship with Adam Gilchrist, the wicketkeeper who was involved in a fair proportion of his dismissals. "I didn't like some players," Warne confirmed. "But everyone is different – it's up to the leadership group to make everyone feel special and important."

Warne clearly blames England's team director, Andy Flower, the captain, Andrew Strauss, or both for Pietersen's exile, whether it turns out to be temporary or permanent. "For English cricket to be in this situation after so much good work, there's only one way now for our friendly English buddies and that's unfortunately down the rankings," he added.

"It's hard to work out how it has got this bad. Management and leadership has to be looked at. KP [is] accepting responsibility and says he behaved in a silly way in some areas too. But if KP was made to feel important, which he is to the England cricket team, then this situation would never have happened."

Warne would presumably concede that he is biased but he also overlooks one key factor in this dispute – the fact that Pietersen is South African and was texting not only friends but compatriots in the opposition team. His England team-mates had already seen him fraternising with the tourists on the Headingley outfield on the morning of the toss, with suggestions that he then swore in Afrikaans after being rebuked by Flower and Strauss.

Pietersen's apologists could, and doubtless would, argue that all this behaviour represented a failure of management and that his fractious relationship with other major characters in the dressing room, and growing isolation, should have been nipped in the bud much earlier. But history would suggest that is much easier said than done.

Nottinghamshire tried it when Pietersen, who had joined them as a youngster from Natal, asked to leave Trent Bridge because he felt unhappy and unloved when they were relegated in 2003. They tried to repair relations but at the end of the following season they decided it was better to allow him to leave – to join Warne at Hampshire.

Rod Bransgrove, the Hampshire chairman, was no more impressed when he first learned of Pietersen's desire to leave the county for Surrey through the media in 2010. Pietersen also dumped English cricket in its last comparable crisis by attempting to have Peter Moores replaced as the England coach – a move that cost him the captaincy, an appointment which now appears more unlikely and foolhardy than ever. Perhaps he is simply unmanageable. Flower has done his best, despite the knowledge that Pietersen had wanted him removed from the role as batting coach that he filled under Moores. Strauss has bent over backwards not to offend, in the knowledge that he inherited the captaincy from Pietersen.

Matt Prior, another of the senior men in the England set-up who was close to Moores, took it upon himself to try to sort things out last Saturday afternoon, after Pietersen had held his meetings with Strauss, Flower and senior England and Wales Cricket Board officials the previous day – when he was informed of the need to either deny or own up to sending disloyal texts. Perhaps that conversation with Prior may hold out the hope of Pietersen being assimilated back into the dressing room, if not quite starting from scratch, at some point in the future.

England will spend much of the winter on the subcontinent, defending their world Twenty20 title in Sri Lanka before playing four Tests in India before Christmas and returning for a one-day series in the New Year. Pietersen's presence there would greatly enhance their prospects, just as it would provide him with a platform to reinforce his profile in India, with the financial benefits that ensue. Crucially he would no longer be playing against his compatriots – although the influence of the Indian Premier League means that Pietersen will almost certainly have friends and team-mates from the Delhi Daredevils in the opposition, even if they do not speak Afrikaans.